What I wore for the weddings!

Hi there!

Thank you for your interest in my wedding outfits!

I am going to reveal which my choices were but before I do, let's remind ourselves of the choices:

Well, I can reveal that Lulu guessed my choices correctly for both venues although I did change my mind for one:

Here's what I wore for the church.

This was voted as their favourite by Lulu and Alison Dormouse.

It's the Monsoon silk dress that some thought too wintry.

You can see me outside the church here: dress is a little skew-whiff!

It was a really comfortable choice for me as the silk felt really nice and I felt comfortable with the longer length.

To accessorise it, I wore my Alex Monroe Posy Loop necklace, my Aldo sand-coloured heels and swapped to pink flat ballet pumps with ankle straps. I wore my Jenny Packham fascinator from my own wedding and earrings from my sister's wedding plus 3 sparkly beaded bracelets.

I wore my little pale blue sparkly cardigan with beading detail.

Since I stopped attending this church, they've completely changed the church grounds so they are grassed and are gardened beautifully and were in flower!

The wedding was a delight and it was so nice to spend time with old church friends.  The music we played went really well although the vicar accidentally missed out the 2nd hymn, Love Divine, so we ended up doing an instrumental version of it during the Signing of the Register which seemed to take an inordinate amount of time.

My choice for the second wedding was originally going to be number 4, the much-aligned and disliked blue lace dress (thank you to Anca and Vix for their vote for it!) but I saw most of the comments before we set off for that wedding and somehow, it put me off it a bit. It DOES have a thick lining, I should point out- it's not ACTUALLY see-through, it has a beige lining!

Instead, I decided to go for number 2, the Lala land white dress as voted favourites by Sheila, Luise, Ang, Vix, Dormouse, Phyl, Bev, Gretchen Joanna

Here I am at the Derbyshire venue (Dovecliff Country House Hotel)

To accessorise, I wore a charity-shopped blue linen cobweb lace cardigan from Monsoon originally and the same pumps I wore later at the previous wedding plus my Jenny Packham fascinator again.  Jewellery-wise, I wore a charity-shopped Aurora Borealis necklace and star earrings.

This wedding was also really lovely.  The brides seemed very happy and in love and as our friend is a musician herself, there was some excellent string quartet music and a great harpist!  CBC's reading went well.  One of the quartet players turned out to be a girl I used to go to Youth Orchestra with  and haven't seen for 25 years!  We had lots of fun and it was lovely to be staying at the hotel so we didn't have to traipse home!

So that's what I wore!

Hope you are well!

xx

What shall I wear for the weddings?

Greetings my Possums!

Hope you are well!

I'm well thank you, enjoyed a week at home with a few outings out for various reasons.

But firstly, believe it or not, I am going to TWO weddings within the next 3 days.

Tomorrow morning is my friend M's wedding at my old church, back in my home town.

CBC and I are playing all the music for the ceremony. He on piano, I am on flute. We are playing the processional, recessional, signing of the register music and all the hymns.  

Then, on Monday, we are heading up to Derbyshire for the wedding of his PGCE friend at a secular venue where he is doing one of the readings.

As usual, I never buy anything SPECIFICALLY for a specific occasion BUT I am a sucker for a pretty dress so I always have things waiting in the wings for their time to shine.

I have many more dresses suitable for a wedding in my wardrobe but I wanted to wear something that hasn't had a chance at a wedding before so I thought I'd take you through my candidates for the two weddings and as a bit of fun, I'd love you to comment stating:

a) Which two choices you like best?

b) Which two you think I have chosen. Remember, one is for a church wedding tomorrow and the other is for a non-religious venue.

I'll talk you through my choices and I will reveal at some point next week, which I chose!

1.  This bottle green dress with flowers on comes from Laura Ashley (before they closed, sob!) and I bought it brand new from Char, who used to blog in her Instasale last year in lockdown.  It feels beautiful and has a lovely low v-neck back which is very flattering. The material feels luxurious and although it fits me perfectly, it doesn't feel restrictive. Not sure what material it is- a blend perhaps? Not been worn ever by me.

2.  This white dress with pink roses is also from Laura Ashley though I found it in a charity shop about 10 years ago. It's 100% cotton, has a full circle skirt and feels really cool and wafty.  Fun miscellaneous fact- this dress features in Lala Land, the movie! Emma Stone wafts out in it and gets into the car with Ryan Gosling- it features for about 10 seconds! When we saw the movie at the cinema, I said to CBC, "I've got that dress!". He didn't believe me and I finally found a screenshot it and he conceded I was right! It's a LITTLE see-through so I have to choose my underwear carefully! Was worn for 60th birthday party around 5 years ago.

3.  Number 3 is the longest of the dresses and is originally from Monsoon but I bought it in a charity shop around 3-4 years ago very cheaply.  It is made of 100% Jacquard silk and feels deliciously cool and wafty but fits me perfectly. I wore it once for an evening flute concert.

4.  Number 4 is from Joanie Clothing and I bought it secondhand for £8 around a year ago. I've got a little tale about this dress.  I saw it on their Instagram about 3 years ago and it was called the KEZZY dress!  I was so excited to see a dress called Kezzie, even if the spelling was off.  It also reminded me of the most beautiful dress from a designer brand called Self Portrait that I fell in love with at my sister-in-law's wedding a few years ago.  Anyway, it was £40 or so and I couldn't justify buying it and wasn't sure about sizing etc.  I didn't buy it and sort of regretted it.  Fast forward to randomly searching eBay and I found it brand new with tags for a measly £8- was enough to help me take a risk on it! It fitted! It's not had its debut yet.

5.  Yes, number 5 is the same dress as number 4 but I thought I'd add in this coffee-coloured silk shrug (charity shopped Monsoon about 15 years ago) to show you how I would wear it in the church IF I wore that one!)  

6.  This is my most recent purchase- I bought it new from a shop called Pink Lemons in Padstow last week and it is made out of recycled Sari silk and feels deliciously soft, cool and wafty.   Not been worn yet.

7.  This dress was bought secondhand from a vintage sale at an art gallery in Leigh-on-sea and it comes from Linea at House of Fraser. It is 100% silk and has fluttery sleeves and a woven ribbon tie waist. I wore it last year for mine and CBC's 7th anniversary meal.

8.  This dress is from Miss Patina and is made of cotton and was bought brand new but second hand from eBay around 4-5 years ago. It is very fitted and I can only JUST still do it up which makes me sad but once the buttons are done up, it feels fine.  It was worn for a Christening around 4 years ago.

So.... these are all my choices, so now it is your chance to share what you think I SHOULD wear for both weddings and what you THINK I'VE chosen for both weddings!

xxx

A Royal Wedding Outfit

Greetings!

Oh, what a sunny day it has been!
At school today, we had a special dress up day today in honour of the Royal Wedding.  It was 'Dress as a Wedding guest for the Royal Wedding'.  In case you are stuck under a rock, this is because Prince Harry and Megan Markle are getting married tomorrow on the 19th May.

It was a joy to come to school and see all the children dressed up in their prettiest dresses and smartest suits and similarly, the staff.  Generally, our staff dress quite casually so it was great to see them in beautiful dresses, fascinators etc.

I looked through my extensive portfolio of dresses and was planning to wear a turquoise silk jacquard long dress from Monsoon that I bought in a charity-shop last year.

However, this morning, I changed my mind and chose something else.

The dress I chose, I AM SURE was worn by Emma Stone for one scene in Lala Land.  I remember going to see it at the cinema and saying, "That's MY dress!" as she sashayed out the house into a waiting car with Ryan Gosling.

Here is the only picture (the one on the right) I can find of it online. What do you think? Is it the same one as mine?

Image borrowed from Pink Villa

Don't you think it looks like mine?

I bought this dress (Laura Ashley) from a charity shop a few years ago and have worn it for a few garden parties.

 I paired it with this pink chiffon hat which was also bought from a charity-shop a very long time ago- when my Mum got married, I went to find a hat to wear and came back with 4 hats- 2 from charity shops and 2 from a hat shop!

 For accessories, I chose a pearl collar necklace from Dorothy Perkins that I always seem to wear with this dress, a pearl and fabric rose bracelet from Primark and some Pearl earrings.
I wore some gold Tescos flip-flop style sandals because I wore some shoes that rubbed several layers of skin off the side of my foot and it has spent the whole week generally being gross and being irritated by whatever shoes I wore so these finally gave it a chance to just air it!

At lunchtime today, we had a lovely time as we planned a Royal tea party and all brought different elements for the lunch/tea.  We had a staff photo in our finery and mingled, eating delicious things.

In the last half an hour of school, we got all the children out into the Playground for an assembly where we awarded prizes to Best Dressed, sang the National Anthem and my Drumming Club entertained the masses as a marching band. It was a joyful day!

Occasionally, it is really nice to do something different like that!

What would you have worn for a royal wedding outfit?

xx

Peacocks

Last weekend, we went to a wedding at a wonderful place near Blandford in Salisbury called The Larmer Tree Gardens.  They were a wonderful place to hold a wedding, beautiful gardens and a myriad peacocks! 

When we first arrived, I saw several wandering around and one even came up and stared into the building where the ceremony took place.  I wondered if we would get to see one displaying or would they all be shy?

I needn't have worried- there were at least two males who honestly fulfilled the stereotype of a flaunting peacock!

 The embarrassing thing is that I have more photos of peacocks than of the Bride and Groom!

 The Peahens seemed completely nonplussed by the flamboyant show put on my those males.

 I think the Peahens are really pretty.

 The sound track to the wedding was that hilarious 'Meee-oww!' of the peacocks

 A couple of times I imitated this cry and was rewarded with a most confused glance from the nearest bird!

 My wedding outfit was actually a Peacocky green

 It was interesting, given that the peacocks kept doing a strange rotational dance, that we got to examine the back of the peacock which was hilarious and an interesting lesson in construction!  He seemed to do a hilarious, wiggly, "Look at my irresistibly fluffy behind!" gesture all the time!

 Look at that!  What a beautiful bird!

I did take a video of the peacock rotating because I found it very funny! Unfortunately it was a sideways one so you'll have to put your head on one side to see it!

Have you encountered peacocks upclose before and were they as posturing as this set?

xx

Rose window

 I've sung in a few cathedrals and large churches over the years including St Paul's Cathedral, Hereford Cathedral, Canterbury, Derby but I was ill the weekend I was supposed to sing at Lincoln cathedral.  I've since stopped singing with the London Cantata Choir who I used to dep for cathedral choirs with which is a shame as it was a wonderful feeling to sing in a choir in these magnificent buildings.  It was my type of singing- rehearsal with a lot of sight-reading and then the services.  I love singing psalms. You get a stave of music and all the lines of text which you have to sing in a free manner, rather like speaking but singing- there are rules about when to change pitch which I always used to love as it was a bit of a brain challenge.  It reminded me of being a choir girl as a child, spending every Sunday morning and evening singing hymns and choral even-song.  I am filled with joy when I hear a cathedral choir or a traditional choir sing now.

It was thus wonderful to visit Lincoln cathedral with a proper SATB choir (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass)- the choir boys were on holiday so it was a depping choir for the wedding, rather like I used to do.

 I wasn't prepared for how utterly glorious Lincoln cathedral was.  It was impressive standing before it before entering on Friday night for the wedding rehearsal. It was so large but not imposing and beautiful.

 The detailing of the stone work was truly amazing and I was overawed by the craftsmanship and what man achieved before machines.

 The doorway was intricately hewed with decreasing-sized arches in ornate patterns.

The odd gargoyle  or face was to be seen which reminded me of Sibenik Cathedral in Croatia last year.

 Inside, my hopes were met in the sight of a myriad vivid stained glass windows of epic proportions.

 Seeing all these different old testament names such as Melchizedek (he will be a high priest in the order of Melchizedek) with such designs was a new experience for me.

 The vaulted ceiling was impressive and there was a glorious lightness despite the fact it was the evening.

 Perhaps my favourite stained glasses are the ones with tiny coloured details like the one above, jewel-like.

 Various old testament stories were depicted here.

 The cathedral front was being set up for a production of Jesus Christ Superstar the following day after the wedding which I'd have loved to see.

 Rose windows like the one below are always a typical sight in a cathedral

 Very hard to capture on a Point and click camera though mine does have some great settings!

 Here is the sanctuary in the choir stalls part of the cathedral where the wedding happened and they signed the register of marriage upon there.

 The light streamed in and I wandered gladly.

 This window was at the very back of the church but there had been a evening prayer in there so I couldn't get too close.

 We took a walk out through the cloisters and took in the views from the quadrangle.

 The cloisters were really stunning too and in the daytime, you can sit and look over this in the cafe.

 As we entered back in, I noticed these beautiful windows.

 Here are the choir stalls where the wedding took place. There are all sorts of Bishops' seats around the edge with names in gold leaf above.

 And finally, here was just before the wedding before my camera died!!

I hope you've enjoyed the brief, but sadly unhistorical tour around Lincoln Cathedral! I thoroughly recommend visiting it!

xxx